talking "through" a doll

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I know this is gonna sound weird...

This is how I played a lot when I was little...i would have a companion doll that had it's own personality..and I would talk for it.

Now I am doing it again...ever since I became obsessed with Puppetrina..

She has a personality completely different from mine, and for some reason, when I "talk" for her, a lot of the time I am a lot more articulate and coherent than I would otherwise be.

Recently, I took her on a road trip, and for more than half the time, I talked among my companions as puppetrina...and my companions addressed Puppetrina almost as much as they addressed me, and whenever we would do anything, it was unimaginable that we would leave Puppetrina behind....And THEN also sometimes if I am feeling too incoherant and muddled...I will switch over to Puppetrina mode and all of a sudden, I can more-effectively manage my sentences...And my very good....very ASish friend has this Aspie-sorta-charm..where he can get really annoyed by things that people say...wordings and such...but he finds it very tolerable to talk to Puppetrina...and so I was Wondering...


It is not unheard of that dolls might be used as aids in helping some Autistic-folk communicate....?

When we were in Dallas, this older black guy who was selling Kennedy assassination souvenirs regarded Puppetrina..and said....oh...I see...that there's your "Talker"..
And it made me think....Are there people on the spectrum who use dolls to help with communication?

In middle school, I had an invisible friend named Sam. Not really imaginary, since I knew perfectly well I was making him up.

And in high school, I drew eyes on my hands as puppets, who were Mr. Ham and Mr. Stu.

I don't remember if it helped me socially at all...it probably just made me seem weirder than I already appeared @_@

I know it inevitably makes me seem wierder...but if I am gonna seem weird no matter what, I might as well just go with it...

There is a cheesy movie from the late 80's or early 90's called "Fish Don't Blink"..and there is a charming autistic girl in that movie who "talks" for a catfish.

I do that as well with my Tuxen (plush linux penguins), especially with Gentoo, my oldest Tux. No idea whether I am more coherent, I guess not.

Often children have imaginary friends who they blame for their own misdeeds. My brother had one named Harris, the catch was Harris was the good boy.

Poopy-maybe the reason you are more articulate when you talk for the doll is the same reason a very shy actor can get up onstage and be someone very confident. You release yourself from repercussions for what you say and that frees you up and gives you more confidence and so then you are more articulate.

In Elementary School I did this with a boy's action figure for a long time. He had his own accent name etc. I built him beds to sleep in and insisted he get a present for Christmas each year. One year he got an action figure that looked like him, and I was told it was his uncle. The uncle really didn't get played with much though. I had a real attachment to this action figure though and completely lost it if it was lost or I didn't bring it. I got in trouble at school for insisting that it sit on my desk with all the other children. It was built out of these small block/Lego type things, so it easily came apart and losing peices happened a lot. Eventually the blocks on his head just wouldn't snap in place anymore and I had to glue and reglue his head together...

I remember even having it talk to people at stores, the workers, other people...everybody. My parents had to introduce this figure as part of the family. I remember one time at a supply store I insisted we buy him this paint tub so he can take a bath while I took a bath/shower, and I had him talk to the worker and the worker said he was ugly. I was sad.

I'm not sure when I gave this action figure up or why. I just know that I used the action figure to hug my parents instead of me, and a lot of other things. I guess it must have helped me. Also, I'm not sure why this wasn't brought to anyone's attention that it wasn't appropriate behavior for my age, probably for anyone's age. It probably was but they didn't know what to do about it. I know my parents talked to me about one day I wouldn't like the action figure anymore, but I swore I always would.

It's now sitting in a window. I could care less about it now though, it was a long time ago.

I wonder if that strategy would be useful for things like stuttering and selective mutism--you know, the kind of problems with speech that get made way worse when you're anxious?

You mention that you talked through dolls when you were a kid, but I'm wondering, do you consider that to be unusual? I mean, a kid doing it? That's how I played all the time when I was a kid. I assumed everyone did, but I never actually observed it.

Now I don't, but I'd kind of like to sometimes. My kids sometimes like me to play with them, but they will rarely let me pick the character. If I can choose my own character (usually a little Lego person) then I really enjoy giving him/her a personality and making him talk. If I have to be a predetermined character who is supposed to act a certain way, then it's hard.

I suppose it's a little unusual, but it's also cool. Yeah, you're not like everyone else, but you're unique and interesting, and that's something to hold on to.

I found Puppetrina in another thread of yours. She looks like a kind of an extension of You (in positive meaning!)

This seems to be a somewhat common occurrence among the more obsessive BJD collectors. There are many websites made "by" the dolls, forum accounts for the dolls where it's the doll who's doing the talking, etc. Many people take their dolls with them wherever they go, and have people talk to them as well.

Seems like a useful sort of thing, 'cause like yeah, you're going to be weird, so might as well at least get to be more articulately weird.

I wonder if that's why some folks take up ventriloquism? There used to be a character on the spoof "Soap" that used his ventriloquism dummy just like this... only that doll was a smart-mouthed little s*** while the character wasn't.

Maybe what Puppetrina needs is a hinge-jawed boyfriend. Think of the wardrobe opportunities....

http://www.ventriloquistdummy.com/

ok. actually, i do this all the time with the little guy in my icon, Spy. i will "talk" for him and he has his own mannerisms, sayings, interests, and speech idiosyncracies, all of which i don't think i could have just come up with on my own. it's like he's real, but using ME as a speaking medium. he talks all the time to my mother, and says the things i wish i could say but which he gets away with, if you know what i mean.

a few year ago, the radio show 'This American Life' had an episode called "Duki" (Ducky), about just this sort of thing. it was about a girl who talks "through" a stuffed toy duck with her sister and family.

The story of a typical American family, and how their family dynamic has re-organized itself around an imaginary duck, invented in childhood, who somehow stayed alive well into adulthood.

listen here